Solve : 'BOOT FAILURE' Error?

1.	Solve : 'BOOT FAILURE' Error?
Answer» Hello, everyone. I have a "vanilla" PC that I have rebuilt myself three times. I have an MSI 845 Ultra motherboard (with RAID support), three ATA hard drives, a CD-RW drive, a DVD-RW drive, and a standard 1.4-MB floppy drive. The system has a 2.0-GHz Pentium 4 and 1.0 GB of RAM. I have a Linksys NIC for accessing the Internet via a cable modem. I use the RAID controller solely for the purpose of connecting a 30-GB hard drive to IDE-3, for making backups. I am using Partition Magic/BootMagic to run Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Professional on IDE-1 (45 GB) as the master, and a 60-GB drive as the slave on IDE-1, for SuSE Linux 8.2 Professional. The CD-RW and DVD-RW are on IDE-2 (to keep the slower devices on their own port). The system worked fine yesterday. When I turned it on today, after POST checked and loaded the Promise MBFastTrak133 RAID controller, I received the following error: > BOOT FAILURE > Insert BOOT diskette in A: > Press any key when ready. I booted from my Partition Magic 8 emergency boot diskettes, as well as from my Norton SystemWorks emergency diskettes (and the CD-ROMS for each) - so, I can boot from CD-ROM and/or floppy. The Promise controller can "see" only the 30-GB drive on IDE-3, which makes sense. Partition Magic and Norton SystemWorks, however, give me an error that there is no bootable hard drive. Just now, I went into CMOS, and the settings for the hard drives were BLANK, although the optical drives on IDE-2 were detected. I set them to AUTO, rebooted, and after MBFastTrack133 (Version 2.00.0.20) ran its check, I got the BootMagic screen to select an operating system. I started thinking about recent delays in the system finding the RAID controller (a warning sign, to be sure) and I am wondering if there is a persistent problem, such as a failing battery on the motherboard, although the motherboard and battery are less than two years old. I will await any further suggestions. In the meantime, I will leave the PC on, back up my Windows XP settings (because I need to reinstall XP Pro anyway, at Microsoft's suggestion). I will also run another backup of Windows 2000 Pro with Drive Image, which will involve rebooting, and another possible BOOT FAILURE. I cannot use Drive Image to back up Linux, because it backs up the whole drive (despite the fact that Linux does not occupy even half of the drive). I need to use a Linux backup utility. (I also plan to upgrade SuSE Linux, but I have better luck with the #.2 releases and SuSE is at 9.1 right now.) I have never had this problem before and I would appreciate suggestions as to possible causes. My first THOUGHT was a failed hard drive, but two drives are involved. I have had motherboard batteries LAST much longer than this one. (I realize that multi-booting is risky; if I had the money, I would get a separate PC for Linux and do without the applications I use with Windows 2000 Professional.) Please let me know if you need additional information. I realize that I have been less thorough than I should, but the thought of losing everything has me shaken up. (I had backups of Windows 2000 and XP Pro, but I was getting tight on disk space, after backing up Linux, and I know that I need space to back up XP's settings, as well as to back up any files that I do not want to lose.) Losing Windows 2000 Professional would be worse than losing XP Pro, in a way, because I have Partition Magic, Boot Magic, and Drive Image installed under that OS. I have managed to get the system up, but I dare not shut it down, at least until I get the needed information from XP Pro. Then, ideally, I will back up 2000 Pro onto the drive connected to IDE-3. In addition, my emergency disk for BootMagic has "disappeared" so I need to make another copy; I will have to set XP's partition active before I can reinstall it, then set 2000 Pro's partition active so that I can access the other two operating systems (besides XP Pro) or use Partition Magic, BootMagic, and Drive Image. I thank you, very much, in advance! Cordially, David P.S. -- For everyone's information, Symantec has ACQUIRED PowerQuest. I have the "PowerQuest versions" of Partition Magic/BootMagic and Drive Image. Drive Image is not the latest version, but PM is still at Version 8; I need to contact Symantec about both products in order to get support. Needless to say, there is no PowerQuest.com domain anymore. (I received no notice about this changover, much to my chagrin.)There seems to be a Dutch http://www.powerquest.nl website. I hope you paid attention in German class and have a knack for other languages. Quote Symantec (vroeger PowerQuest)-producten: Symantec (Earlier on Powerquest) products: DeployCenter Library DriveCopy DriveImage EasyRestore PartitionMagic ServerMagic for NetWare V2i Protector Enterprise Desktop V2i Protector Enterprise Server V2i Protector Management Console V2i Protector Small Business Edition VolumeManager http://www.spc.org.nc/it/TechHead/unattended_install_of_third_part.htmDavid, I had a very similar problem with my old GIGABYTE GA-7VAXP motherboard with the same onboard RAID controller after my power supply blew. I would, intermittantly, get the boot disk error message you refer to in your post. I can tell you what the problem is - or at least what it was for me. After a LOT of testing, checking, part replacement, etc, it was discovered the problem was the motherboard itself - either one of the IDE channels, or the RAID controller chip itself, was flaky and dying. In the end I was able to back up my data before ditching the motherboard and rebuilding with a new board. Sorry to say that it sounds like you may be in a similar position. Good luck.Hello, Chade! Quote David, I had a very similar problem with my old Gigabyte GA-7VAXP motherboard with the same onboard RAID controller after my power supply blew. I would, intermittantly, get the boot disk error message you refer to in your post. I can tell you what the problem is - or at least what it was for me. After a LOT of testing, checking, part replacement, etc, it was discovered the problem was the motherboard itself - either one of the IDE channels, or the RAID controller chip itself, was flaky and dying. In the end I was able to back up my data before ditching the motherboard and rebuilding with a new board. Sorry to say that it sounds like you may be in a similar position. Good luck. Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. I apologize for my delay in responding. (I am having some health problems.) The problem has not recurred after I reset the detection of the two hard drives in BIOS/CMOS to 'Auto'. I suspect my problem may have had something to do with changing the drive letters (except for the floppy drive), in preparation for adding a new, small partition for my Windows XP Professional swap and spool folders. (Windows XP Professional has become corrupted and Microsoft support, as seems typical in such situations, has recommended that I perform a "clean reinstall" of the operating system.) I am sorry to hear about your motherboard problem and I hope I do not have the same issue. (I am "multi-booting" Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Professional, and SuSE Linux Professional on the same PC -- which I know is "living dangerously.") Thanks again! Cordially, DavidGreetings, Raptor! Quote There seems to be a Dutch http://www.powerquest.nl website. I hope you paid attention in German class and have a knack for other languages. Thank you for taking the time to respond, and for the information. The Netherlands URL that you gave me indicates that Symantec has, indeed, acquired all of PowerQuest's software titles. By the way, although I studied German for only one year in college, which was over twenty years ago, I did -- fortunately -- pay attention. I even ended up using German for a couple of consulting jobs that I had in the mid-1990s, although I did not have to reveal my horrible pronunciation, because I was writing some e-mail in simple German and, with difficulty, reading some German. (My focus now is on learning Russian -- but I would clearly be off-topic to describe that endeavor.) Again, thank you! Cordially, David Hello, 'merlin_2'! Quote http://www.spc.org.nc/it/TechHead/unattended_install_of_third_part.htm Thank you for the informative URL! As I have written elsewhere in this thread, the 'BOOT FAILURE' error has not recurred since I reset the detection of the two hard drives in question to 'Auto' in BIOS/CMOS. On a Web site devoted to drivers for Windows, I did find a newer version of the MBFastTrak133 Lite (TM) driver than the one for Windows XP that came with my MSI motherboard (on a floppy diskette). Unfortunately, I have yet to find a Microsoft-certified version of this RAID controller driver (and Microsoft does not appear to have written a "mini-driver" for this particular Promise RAID controller, nor do I understand why only a "lite" version of the driver seems to exist). In addition, I find it odd that it took me so long to find an updated version of this Promise driver, or any version of it, on the Web. Fortunately, as I say, it was included on a diskette with my MSI 845 Ultra-ARU motherboard (which, of course, is no longer made). Eventually, I hope I can afford to rebuild my PC again. I know that my 2.0-GHz Pentium 4 processor and 1.0-GB of RAM will not be sufficient for Windows "Longhorn," which I believe has an estimated release date of early 2006. Thank you, again! Cordially, David Does this help you>http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=830&page=5Hi, 'merlin_2'! Quote Does this help you>http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=830&page=5 Thanks for the informative URL! I do have RAID 0 set up. The boot failure recurred and I found that the connector to the primary master drive on IDE-0 as just a "tad" out on one side, causing the erratic nature of this problem! I certainly made a silly mistake, but at least I learned always to check connections! Thanks, again! Cordially, David

Answer»

Hello, everyone.

I have a "vanilla" PC that I have rebuilt myself three times. I have an MSI 845 Ultra motherboard (with RAID support), three ATA hard drives, a CD-RW drive, a DVD-RW drive, and a standard 1.4-MB floppy drive. The system has a 2.0-GHz Pentium 4 and 1.0 GB of RAM. I have a Linksys NIC for accessing the Internet via a cable modem.

I use the RAID controller solely for the purpose of connecting a 30-GB hard drive to IDE-3, for making backups.

I am using Partition Magic/BootMagic to run Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP Professional on IDE-1 (45 GB) as the master, and a 60-GB drive as the slave on IDE-1, for SuSE Linux 8.2 Professional.

The CD-RW and DVD-RW are on IDE-2 (to keep the slower devices on their own port).

The system worked fine yesterday. When I turned it on today, after POST checked and loaded the Promise MBFastTrak133 RAID controller, I received the following error:

> BOOT FAILURE
> Insert BOOT diskette in A:
> Press any key when ready.

I booted from my Partition Magic 8 emergency boot diskettes, as well as from my Norton SystemWorks emergency diskettes (and the CD-ROMS for each) - so, I can boot from CD-ROM and/or floppy.

The Promise controller can "see" only the 30-GB drive on IDE-3, which makes sense. Partition Magic and Norton SystemWorks, however, give me an error that there is no bootable hard drive.

Just now, I went into CMOS, and the settings for the hard drives were BLANK, although the optical drives on IDE-2 were detected. I set them to AUTO, rebooted, and after MBFastTrack133 (Version 2.00.0.20) ran its check, I got the BootMagic screen to select an operating system.

I started thinking about recent delays in the system finding the RAID controller (a warning sign, to be sure) and I am wondering if there is a persistent problem, such as a failing battery on the motherboard, although the motherboard and battery are less than two years old.

I will await any further suggestions. In the meantime, I will leave the PC on, back up my Windows XP settings (because I need to reinstall XP Pro anyway, at Microsoft's suggestion).

I will also run another backup of Windows 2000 Pro with Drive Image, which will involve rebooting, and another possible BOOT FAILURE. I cannot use Drive Image to back up Linux, because it backs up the whole drive (despite the fact that Linux does not occupy even half of the drive). I need to use a Linux backup utility. (I also plan to upgrade SuSE Linux, but I have better luck with the #.2 releases and SuSE is at 9.1 right now.)

I have never had this problem before and I would appreciate suggestions as to possible causes. My first THOUGHT was a failed hard drive, but two drives are involved. I have had motherboard batteries LAST much longer than this one. (I realize that multi-booting is risky; if I had the money, I would get a separate PC for Linux and do without the applications I use with Windows 2000 Professional.)

Please let me know if you need additional information. I realize that I have been less thorough than I should, but the thought of losing everything has me shaken up. (I had backups of Windows 2000 and XP Pro, but I was getting tight on disk space, after backing up Linux, and I know that I need space to back up XP's settings, as well as to back up any files that I do not want to lose.)

Losing Windows 2000 Professional would be worse than losing XP Pro, in a way, because I have Partition Magic, Boot Magic, and Drive Image installed under that OS.

I have managed to get the system up, but I dare not shut it down, at least until I get the needed information from XP Pro. Then, ideally, I will back up 2000 Pro onto the drive connected to IDE-3. In addition, my emergency disk for BootMagic has "disappeared" so I need to make another copy; I will have to set XP's partition active before I can reinstall it, then set 2000 Pro's partition active so that I can access the other two operating systems (besides XP Pro) or use Partition Magic, BootMagic, and Drive Image.

I thank you, very much, in advance!

Cordially,

David

P.S. -- For everyone's information, Symantec has ACQUIRED PowerQuest. I have the "PowerQuest versions" of Partition Magic/BootMagic and Drive Image.

Drive Image is not the latest version, but PM is still at Version 8; I need to contact Symantec about both products in order to get support.

Needless to say, there is no PowerQuest.com domain anymore. (I received no notice about this changover, much to my chagrin.)There seems to be a Dutch http://www.powerquest.nl website.

I hope you paid attention in German class and have a knack for other languages.

Quote

Symantec (vroeger PowerQuest)-producten:
Symantec (Earlier on Powerquest) products:

   DeployCenter Library
   DriveCopy
   DriveImage
   EasyRestore
   PartitionMagic
   ServerMagic for NetWare
   V2i Protector Enterprise Desktop
   V2i Protector Enterprise Server
   V2i Protector Management Console
   V2i Protector Small Business Edition
   VolumeManager

http://www.spc.org.nc/it/TechHead/unattended_install_of_third_part.htmDavid,

I had a very similar problem with my old GIGABYTE GA-7VAXP motherboard with the same onboard RAID controller after my power supply blew. I would, intermittantly, get the boot disk error message you refer to in your post.

I can tell you what the problem is - or at least what it was for me. After a LOT of testing, checking, part replacement, etc, it was discovered the problem was the motherboard itself - either one of the IDE channels, or the RAID controller chip itself, was flaky and dying. In the end I was able to back up my data before ditching the motherboard and rebuilding with a new board.

Sorry to say that it sounds like you may be in a similar position.

Good luck.Hello, Chade!

Quote

David,

I had a very similar problem with my old Gigabyte GA-7VAXP motherboard with the same onboard RAID controller after my power supply blew. I would, intermittantly, get the boot disk error message you refer to in your post.

I can tell you what the problem is - or at least what it was for me. After a LOT of testing, checking, part replacement, etc, it was discovered the problem was the motherboard itself - either one of the IDE channels, or the RAID controller chip itself, was flaky and dying. In the end I was able to back up my data before ditching the motherboard and rebuilding with a new board.

Sorry to say that it sounds like you may be in a similar position.

Good luck.

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. I apologize for my delay in responding. (I am having some health problems.)

The problem has not recurred after I reset the detection of the two hard drives in BIOS/CMOS to 'Auto'.

I suspect my problem may have had something to do with changing the drive letters (except for the floppy drive), in preparation for adding a new, small partition for my Windows XP Professional swap and spool folders.

(Windows XP Professional has become corrupted and Microsoft support, as seems typical in such situations, has recommended that I perform a "clean reinstall" of the operating system.)

I am sorry to hear about your motherboard problem and I hope I do not have the same issue. (I am "multi-booting" Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Professional, and SuSE Linux Professional on the same PC -- which I know is "living dangerously.")

Thanks again!

Cordially,

DavidGreetings, Raptor!

Quote

There seems to be a Dutch http://www.powerquest.nl website.

I hope you paid attention in German class and have a knack for other languages.

Thank you for taking the time to respond, and for the information.

The Netherlands URL that you gave me indicates that Symantec has, indeed, acquired all of PowerQuest's software titles.

By the way, although I studied German for only one year in college, which was over twenty years ago, I did -- fortunately -- pay attention.

I even ended up using German for a couple of consulting jobs that I had in the mid-1990s, although I did not have to reveal my horrible pronunciation, because I was writing some e-mail in simple German and, with difficulty, reading some German.

(My focus now is on learning Russian -- but I would clearly be off-topic to describe that endeavor.)

Again, thank you!

Cordially,

David
Hello, 'merlin_2'!

Quote

http://www.spc.org.nc/it/TechHead/unattended_install_of_third_part.htm

Thank you for the informative URL!

As I have written elsewhere in this thread, the 'BOOT FAILURE' error has not recurred since I reset the detection of the two hard drives in question to 'Auto' in BIOS/CMOS.

On a Web site devoted to drivers for Windows, I did find a newer version of the MBFastTrak133 Lite (TM) driver than the one for Windows XP that came with my MSI motherboard (on a floppy diskette).

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a Microsoft-certified version of this RAID controller driver (and Microsoft does not appear to have written a "mini-driver" for this particular Promise RAID controller, nor do I understand why only a "lite" version of the driver seems to exist).

In addition, I find it odd that it took me so long to find an updated version of this Promise driver, or any version of it, on the Web. Fortunately, as I say, it was included on a diskette with my MSI 845 Ultra-ARU motherboard (which, of course, is no longer made).

Eventually, I hope I can afford to rebuild my PC again. I know that my 2.0-GHz Pentium 4 processor and 1.0-GB of RAM will not be sufficient for Windows "Longhorn," which I believe has an estimated release date of early 2006.

Thank you, again!

Cordially,

David
Does this help you>http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=830&page=5Hi, 'merlin_2'!

Quote

Does this help you>http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=830&page=5

Thanks for the informative URL! I do have RAID 0 set up.

The boot failure recurred and I found that the connector to the primary master drive on IDE-0 as just a "tad" out on one side, causing the erratic nature of this problem!

I certainly made a silly mistake, but at least I learned always to check connections!

Thanks, again!

Cordially,

David

Solve : 'BOOT FAILURE' Error?

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